He'll Be Fine
by Hollyflash
Summary: Two-shot, rated for character death. A Fenton invention makes a shocking discovery about Vlad Masters, and Danny refuses to believe the man will be anything but fine.
1. Part 1: He'll Be Fine

/Throw confetti/ As it turns out, I actually do get around to my writing prompts!

So, this is based from my own headcanon about Vlad's Villain Decay and Tumblr user Ghost-Chicky's prompt regarding it that literally made me run around my house squealing.

I overreact when people like my stuff, okay?

So, no Phantom Planet. Also, fair warning, this sucks. I failed at it pretty badly

* * *

He'll Be Fine

Sixteen-year-old Danny Fenton stared at the unwelcome house guest who the teen had found sitting in the kitchen drinking tea with his mother.

"What are _you _doing here?" He demanded, and Vlad Masters raised an eyebrow.

"My apologies dear boy," Vlad replied, "But I'd know if it was against the law to have a cup of tea with an old friend." He gave Maddie a side glance, and she rolled her eyes in reply.

Danny's witty reply was cut off as Jack Fenton ran up the stairs and pulled Vlad into a hug. "V-man! Thanks for comin' over! I've made a lot of cool ghost hunting gear to show you!"

Jack started to half drag Vlad towards the lab while both Maddie and Danny looked on with amused smirks. "Jack! Though I _appreciate _your enthusiasm," Vlad pushed himself away from Jack, his voice losing its sharp edge as he straightened his suit. "I possess the ability to walk on my own."

_Possess? _Danny frowned, _great, this better not be another of his schemes to kill my dad and marry my mom._

He followed Jack into the lab, and Danny glanced over at his mother, who sighed. "Come on, Danny. Let's go make sure they don't hurt themselves."

With the four of them in the lab, Danny found himself half using his mother as a human shield. Being surrounded by a bunch of weapons that could either kill him or very seriously injure them would make anyone a little paranoid. Of course, the realization that his dad was currently more than likely to use them on his arch nemesis was a rather pleasant thought that made the risk worthwhile.

"And this is my pride and joy, the Fenton Mind-Prongs!" Jack was shouting, waving his arms around like a madman towards some sort of device. It was some type of large gun which appeared to have rounded prongs coming from the barrel and had a small screen sticking out from the right side. "It'll latch onto a ghost and we'll be able to see their greatest weakness on this screen here! That way we'll be able to take them down fast and find the easiest way to rip them apart _molecule _by_ molecule!_"

Danny shivered, _note to self; destroy that thing as soon as possible._

"Fascinating," Vlad spoke in reply, and sent a side glance towards Danny. "I wonder what _Danny Phantom's _greatest weakness would be?"

"Don't you dare!" Danny muttered under his breath, his ghost powers making his eyes glow green for a few moments. "Vlad, don't you _dare!_"

Though his mother shot him a curious glance, Danny's comment was all but ignored. "That's a great idea, Vladdie!" Jack was back to flailing around, "We'll hit the spook and then-" He swung his fist, which hit the invention. Danny stepped behind his mom as it hit the ground, and then somehow, it fired.

The prongs latched onto Vlad's face, and Danny watched in wide-eyed horror as they shocked his enemy, causing the older man to scream for someone to get it off of him.

Only one thought was going through his mind, _that could've been me._

After a few fearful second Jack raced over to Vlad and Maddie to the weapon. Jack pulled the prongs of the weapon off of the other man while Maddie attempted to disable the weapon. Once they finally had, Vlad was still for a few moments before sitting up, rubbing his head.

"Are you okay, Vlad?" Jack asked, placing a hand on his 'friend's' shoulder.

Vlad slowly raised his head, and Danny could tell the he was downright _pissed. _"Do I look okay, you bumbling idiot?!" He pushed Jack's hand away and stood up. Danny was pretty sure that Vlad was considering taking his ghost form right then and there so that he could beat Jack to a pulp. "You could have killed me with that... That idiotic invention! I could've died, you oaf, just like in college! How are you allowed near humanity?! You should be locked away- you're a danger to everyone around you!"

"Leave him alone, Vlad!" Danny called, stepping in between his father and Vlad. "It was an accident!"

"An accident?!" Vlad scoffed, "Oh please Daniel, I saw you step behind your mother for cover. You'd be safer in the Ghost Zone then you'd be here! Maybe there you'd be less likely to be murdered by your _father_ in an _accident! _And it wouldn't be the first time, either!"

Danny's eyes began to glow green, "That was not his fault, Pla- Vlad!"

"Oh, it was Daniel!" Vlad replied, ignoring Danny's near slip of the tongue. "Every moment you're near him, you're closer to-"

"Vlad... Oh god, Vlad..." Maddie's quiet words interrupted the fight, and Danny forced his eyes back to their human blue. "I... I think you should see this."

Frowning, Vlad pushed past the two Fenton men and made his way over to Maddie, who was holding the weapon in her arms. She shakily motioned to the screen that was on the side of the weapon, and Vlad was suddenly white as a ghost. "Is...?"

Maddie could only nod. Jack made the way over to the two of them, his eyes going wide. "Vlad, I... Oh, Vlad..."

Danny stayed where he was standing, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. _What? Wait, hold on, his weakness... Okay, I want to see this. It can't be his ghost form, considering they haven't shot him yet, but still... _He took a step towards the three adults, stopping suddenly as Vlad just fell to his knees.

"...Oh, well," The billionaire muttered, running a hand through his hair. "I... I guess that explains a lot, huh? Why I've... Oh god, I never expected this..."

"I'm so sorry, Vlad..." Jack whispered, kneeling down and wrapping his arms around his friend.

What confused Danny was the fact that Vlad didn't try to push Jack away.

"What's going on?" He asked, taking a few more steps forward. "Mom, Dad, what did that thing show?"

His parents exchanged a look for a few moments, neither speaking up. In the end, it was Vlad who broke the tense silence.

"Of all the ways I thought I'd die..." He gave a half-hearted laugh, "Kind of funny that it'd be a brain tumor. Never saw that one coming... Never in a million years."

"Wait. What?" Danny frowned, nearly running over and taking the weapon from his mother. On its screen was what appeared to be some sort of cross-section of a head, and at one point where the brain would be was a large white splotch that was taking up a good chunk of the head.

Danny stared at it for a few moments before looking up at his Mom, hoping for an explanation.

Maddie took a deep breath in before motioning to the screen. "Danny, that's pretty much the same image you'd get from an MRI... The white is a brain tumor."

Danny nearly dropped the weapon, "W-what?" _Vlad? Brain tumor? No, no, no, no. It doesn't fit. It can't be real. The thing's in like a third of his brain!_

"I'm going to die, aren't I?" Vlad mumbled, and Danny actually did drop the weapon.

"No," He muttered, taking a few steps away from the three adults. "No way. He can't be dying, no way." _Maybe it would only be this bad to humans, not hybrids. Yeah, Vlad'll be fine, his ghost side will fight it off, and he'll go back to being my Fruit Loop of an enemy._

_Yeah, he'll be fine._

_He has to be._

* * *

A brain tumor taking up the third of his brain? I don't think Vlad's going to be okay, Danny.

Actually, I know he isn't. Such are the events of the magical part two that I should probably write but I swear my motivation is going skydiving.

On another note; proper characterization? Who needs _proper characterization? _Have Danny being in denial that Vlad will die instead. Or maybe I should just stop trying to write stuff late at night.

Anyway, my headcanon is basically that Vlad's villain decay was caused by a brain tumor that started to actually affect his behavior sometime around his relapse of Ecto Acne in _Masters of all Time. _It was never diagnosed, and began to mess with his ability to make decisions, as we see in _Kindred Spirits _where it's revealed that Vlad cloned Danny in his efforts to get a 'perfect half-ghost son'. I can't be the only one who thinks that doing something like that sounds hardly like the Vlad we had seen before. By _Phantom Planet,_ the only reason he still appeared fine was because his human side started to feed off of the energy from his ghost side, which did little more than weaken his ghost side, which was a factor in the fact that Danny was usually either able to beat or tie their fights. When Vlad was left in space during _Phantom Planet_, his ghost side was drained of ectoplasm from keeping his human side alive and repairing any possible damage caused to it by the ectoranium. Vlad's ghost side began to die, and without it to support him, his human side did too. However, his human side died first, forming into the nearly empty shell of his ghost side, allowing Vlad to live on as a ghost and not a hybrid. That is why we see him without a space helmet at the end of _Phantom Planet_; if you don't need oxygen, why would you keep the helmet?

Apparently that's morbid but I don't see how.

So, I'll try to get part two up soon. But until then, thoughts?


	2. Part 2: Alone

Well. This took a lot longer to finish than it should've and it's still horrible. Yay me.

So yeah, part two; in which the title of this two-shot turns out to be some cruel irony which made it so I didn't want to reply to a review and proper characterization is beat with a shovel.

Also Danny has a breakdown because Danielle isn't exactly a proper hybrid.

Wow, it just starts sounding worse the more I try to explain it.

* * *

**Part 2;**

He wasn't fine. How could he be? A brain tumor, that big... It was only a matter of time before he became full ghost rather than a hybrid. Months, at the most. Probably not even that.

But he didn't tell anyone that. Maddie and Jack knew, of course, as did Daniel and more likely than not his little friends and sister, but the rest of the world was left to wonder why Vlad Masters began to get his affairs in order.

He wasn't sure why he wasn't already dead, after all, with a tumor that big he should've been.

The only possible answer he could think of was his ghost side. It made sense, really. It'd held him through those first years in the hospital with Ecto-Acne.

Vlad found himself scoffing at the thought. _Ecto-Acne._ Its return a while back had probably been a side effect from his tumor.

He should've seen this coming.

The time spent since its discovery had been... _Interesting, _to say the least. Daniel had been constantly checking up on him, acting rather oddly. Only recently had Vlad convinced the younger hybrid to stop acting so odd whenever Vlad was in his ghost form. Which was something Vlad had found himself usually turning too, as it gave him more strength than his human form.

Vlad could swear that Daniel seemed almost... Protective, if that could be considered the right term, of him. Daniel would always come ahead to warn him when Maddie and Jack would be coming by to visit.

But Vlad couldn't stand it- Daniel was a teenager, he should not be trying to protect him! No, it should be the other way around! This was _not_ right!

However, soon Daniel wouldn't have to trouble himself with Vlad anymore.

It had taken a while, but Vlad had managed to find a way it would work.

They'd think he died in his sleep, and he'd form into his ghost side.

Oh, he wouldn't be a hybrid anymore, which was quite the drawback, but he'd still exist. And that was not.

_Ectoranium... It's quite an amazing stone, if I do say so myself._

Taking his ghost form, he very calmly lied down on his bed and slowly reached over and placed his hand on a small green rock.

His screams echoed throughout the building as he let it change him back to his human form. But the damage had been done; as ghosts were naturally weak to the green stone, it damaged his ectoplasmic form. His ghost side no longer had the energy to support his human side, and with Vlad Plasmius becoming little more than a shell from the energy it had pulled away, there would be none left to give to his human side.

And without it to support him, Vlad Masters wouldn't last very long.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Danny, in his ghost form, phased into Vlad's mansion. It was perfectly fine to do so, as the billionaire had fired all of his staff a couple of weeks ago.

It had been a little over a month since they had found out about Vlad's tumor, and Danny still hadn't told Sam and Tucker. Jazz had found out, though Danny wasn't exactly sure how she had. But he wasn't surprised; he'd never been able to keep a secret from his sister for long.

However, that wasn't an issue at hand. His parents would be coming to visit Vlad soon, and Danny knew that the elder hybrid now spent most of his time as Plasmius. It wouldn't end well if his parents caught Vlad in his ghost form.

"Vlad! Hey, Fruit Loop, you in here?" Danny called, and waited a few moments.

There was no answer.

"Vlad, come out!" Danny groaned, "My parents will be here soon! _Vlad!_"

A little ways away there was a crash, and Danny's ghost sense went off just as a voice muttered, "Butter Biscuits."

Danny laughed before flying towards the sound, not pausing to wonder why his ghost sense had gone off towards the older hybrid when it had never before.

Danny was still chuckling as he floated into the room, as Vlad stood up in his ghost form and gave the broken table that lay beside him a glare as he dusted off his suit.

Danny, in between breaths of laughter, managed to say, "Nice hair."

Even though the older man was in his ghost form, his hair was in its human ponytail. Vlad looked confused for a moment before reaching a hand to smooth his hair back. "...So it is."

"Glad to know you finally decided to sell your hairstyle back to whatever demon you bought it from," Danny joked and Vlad just gave him an annoyed look. "What, no reply? I get the banter was bad, but give me a break; I'm still laughing about the fact you were beat by a table."

Vlad gave the table beside him a look before turning back to Danny. "Hilarious, dear boy."

Danny smiled, "I try. Anyway, you need to turn human. My parents are going to be here any minute, and if they see you in your ghost form... Yeah. It'll be bad. So, turn human."

Vlad was silent for a moment as Danny landed in front of him before replying with, "Daniel... I can't."

_...What? No. No, no, no._

"What do you mean, you can't?" Danny frowned, "You've been a hybrid for like, twenty years longer than me. You've got to have transforming figured out by now!"

"Daniel, I..."

"Look, I'll even demonstrate!" Danny broke in, a twinge of desperation to believe that the older man was fine leaking into his voice. He called warmth of his human side forward, spread out his arms in a 'ta-dah' motion, and switched back to his ghost form as he let his arms fall to his sides. "See? Easy! Now it's your turn; go human."

"Daniel, I can't." Vlad repeated, and Danny rolled his eyes.

"Yes, you can," He replied, a slight amount more desperation evident as his voice shook. "It's a basic power! Come on, do it before my parents get here! Come on, it's a basic power for hybrids, so why don't you just-"

"_Daniel,_" Vlad cut him off, placing his hands on Danny's shoulders, "I can't turn human. I'm no longer a human-ghost hybrid."

With those two sentences, the walls Danny had created to keep the idea of the only other being like him not surviving came crashing down.

"W-what?" Danny found himself stumbling over his words, "What... I... You... _No. _No, no, no. You can't be, it's- no!" The hybrid took a step back, bumping into a wall with his eyes wide. "You can't be- no! This has got to be one of your weird Fruit Loop-y schemes! You _can't _be... No! No, you aren't! No, no way! You... You can't be... Because then... I'm..."

"Daniel..." Vlad lowered his hands, pausing for a moment. "...My apologies, Little Badger, I know this can't be what you-"

"You're lying."

Vlad raised an eyebrow at that comment, and Danny lowered his head as he took a shaking breath in. "Excuse me?"

"You're lying," Danny repeated, "You have to be, y-you can't not be, because..." He cut himself off with what could best be described with a small hiccup.

Vlad seemed confused, "Daniel, are you... Are you crying?"

"No!" Danny was quick to deny it, but as he lifted his head it quickly became evident he was lying. Vlad blinked in surprise as the younger boy looked down once more. "I-I'm not," He took a shaking breath in, "I'm not, because y-you aren't dead, you c-can't be, b-because... If you are... That'll... That'll mean..." He leaned back against the wall and folded his hands over his stomach, slowly sliding down it until he was sitting on the floor. "B-because Dani's never been anything but one... And you're gone...That'll mean I'm the only one... And... And I'll be alone, I... I don't want to be alone. I _can't_ be alone..."

Vlad slowly lowered himself to his knees, glancing at his hands before placing them on Danny's shoulders. Almost silently, he whispered, "What have I done..."

And then there was a knock on the door, and Danny lifted his head. "Oh no. My parents! Vlad, you need to get out of here!"

Vlad pulled his hands back, "Weren't you just-"

"I don't really care, Vlad!" Danny cut in, "Right now, I don't really care about the fact that you want to kill my dad and mary my mom! I don't care at all about your stupid evil plans or how much of a Fruit Loop you are! You're a ghost, and they're ghost hunters! I'll distract them," He stood up, and Vlad did the same, "You just get out of here! Get to the Ghost Zone! If you really are dead, there's no way you're at your old strength- I mean, you fell through the floor-, so go!"

There was a pause, the knocking became more frantic, and Vlad sighed. "This doesn't mean you've won. I will be back, Daniel."

"I don't really care!" Danny shouted, "Go before my dad breaks down the door! And yeah, he will do that!" Danny turned away, "Just... Just go..."

The room lapsed into silence before Danny risked a look over his shoulder, only to notice that Vlad had taken his advice and left.

The hybrid let out a pitiful laugh, placing his hands over his face and falling to his knees.

_I... I guess I'm the only one now..._

_…I'm alone..._

.-.-.-.-.-.

A few rooms over and a little while later, Jack Fenton knocked down the front door. "Oops, sorry about that, Vladdie!"

Silence was his only reply.

"…Vlad? Hey, V-Man, I get that your house is big but normally you answer the door!"

"…Vlad?" Maddie called out, coming up beside her husband. "…Maybe he's upstairs."

"But we've tried speaking into that intercom-doorbell of his, and he didn't answer then…" Jack frowned, "Mads, doesn't something seem… Off? It's too quiet."

"You're right," Maddie replied, "Something isn't right about this, Jack."

There was the sound of a boot squeaking on a floor, and both of the Fentons looked up to see the Ghost Kid, Phantom, rubbing his eyes with a hand as he walked down the hallway. Both Maddie and Jack reached for their weapons, and the Ghost Kid looked up to them. He stopped where he stood, his hands falling to his sides, before he kept walking.

"He's gone, you know. To the Ghost Zone, hopefully." Phantom muttered, "I just flew around to check. His house was huge… I'm surprised you guys didn't break the door down sooner."

Maddie and Jack exchanged a confused glance and kept their weapons pointed at the ghost. "Who are you talking about?"

Phantom shrugged, "What does it matter? He's gone, and… And I'm the only one now."

"What are you talking about, ghost?!" Jack demanded, pointing his weapon at Phantom. "And I don't want any of your lies!"

"What does it matter?" Phantom replied, stopping where he stood, "You know what? Fine, the only other person who was like me is gone, okay? There was one kind of like us, sure, but she doesn't know what it was like before! I'm alone now, okay?! I'm the only real one now!" He lowered his head, "So are you going to let me passed you or do I have to go through the floor?"

Neither Maddie nor Jack replied, too busy trying to figure out what the ghost meant. Phantom shook his head and phased through the floor, and Jack looked back as the ghost came out of the steps behind them. He shook his head as he became tangible once again, appeared to take a shaking breath in, and flew off.

Normally Jack would've ran after the ghost and threaten to rip it apart molecule by molecule. But right now, he had something more important to focus on; "Mads, why would Vlad let a ghost in his house? Especially one that wasn't flying. Weird, huh?"

"Jack, I have a bad feeling about this…" Maddie whispered, looking around. "Something's wrong with this whole thing. Vlad… Where is Vlad?"

Maddie and Jack exchanged a glance before, fearing the worst; they rushed deeper into the building, only to end up skidding to a stop at the sight of another ghost calmly leaning against the wall once they had managed to go up a floor.

_The Wisconsin Ghost! …Okay, what's with the hairstyle change?_

The ghost looked up at them, one eyebrow raised. "So, I take it Daniel has left? You'd think someone who spends most of his time hunting ghosts would be better at tracking me. All I had to do to avoid the boy was stay in the old room."

Jack raised his gun as the ghost stood up, "Why are there so many of your kind here, spook?!"

The ghost rolled his eyes- or, appeared to; his eyes were one solid color after all- before he spoke, "Now Jack, put the weapon down. Not even you would attack an old friend… Would you?"

Maddie gasped, and Jack nearly dropped his weapon. "What are you implying?!"

The ghost raised an eyebrow, "Maddie, my dear, I know you're smarter than this. Who of your friends could I be, hmm? Would the fact that this new development happened recently help? Does the word 'Proto-Portal' drop any hints?"

The weapons of both Maddie and Jack fell to the floor as Maddie's eyes widened with realization and Jack nearly silently whispered, "Vlad."

* * *

Deleted scene; Danny comes back, flips out because Vlad didn't go to the Ghost Zone, and then drags him into it.

Woo, I finished this! …It sucks, though, and I tried and failed to make it better. I wish I could blame this ending on the hill of angst I'm currently on, but I can't because this was actually the planned ending. And one person reviewed with something along the lines of 'I actually hope the Fruit Loop will be okay' and I just couldn't reply to them because I kept thinking about how he wouldn't… Yeah.

Well, you people know what I think of it, but I don't know what you do. So, thoughts?


End file.
